Eurozone to Greece: Either a deal, or go bust

Paris: After Greece failed to propose a fresh debt deal on Tuesday, the eurozone gave it until Thursday to present new proposals to secure a deal with creditors, media reported on Wednesday.

On Sunday, a meeting of all 28 members of the European Union (EU) will be held – a day after the new Greek proposals are expected to be discussed by the eurozone finance ministers.

The Greek crisis came up for debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday. European Council President Donald Tusk told members of the European Parliament that there were only “four days left” to reach a final agreement, BBC reported.

Amid boos and cheers, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed the European parliament, saying the Greek people “stood up and were counted – we have to listen to what they said”.

Tsipras said detailed proposals were being drawn up to bring about an agreement with Greece’s partners on resolving the debt crisis.

In Brussels on Tuesday, Greece was given an ultimatum that either there would be a deal or Greece and its banks would face the prospect of going bust on Monday (July 13).

EU Economy Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Europe wanted to stop Greece falling out of the eurozone.

“The Commission does not want a Grexit (Greece’s exit from the eurozone). Grexit would be a terrible failure and we are fighting to avoid it,” Moscovici said.

Earlier, EU President Jean-Claude Juncker said Grexit could not be ruled out but he did not want Greece to leave the eurozone.

Athens: On Sunday, Greeks voted in the second general election this year to elect a new government that will implement the three year bailout agreed in the summer with international creditors.

About 9.8 million citizens of 18 years and above were registered to vote in 19,457 polling stations nationwide. The number of new voters is 108,464.

The two front-runners are former prime minister and leader of the radical-left SYRIZA party Alexis Tsipras and Evangelos Meimarakis of the conservative New Democracy party.

Tsipras asked weary Greek voters to deliver a “fighting government” capable of “moving forward with difficult reforms” as he cast his ballot in the country’s closely-fought election, the fifth in six years.

“The Greek people will take their future into their own hands… and seal the transition to a new era,” Tsipras said in the working-class Athens district Kypseli. “I’m confident.”

Meimarakis after casting his ballot: “I believe we will have a better future for all Greeks regardless of which party they vote for.

“I hope the result will vindicate Greek people’s sacrifices,” President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said.

Stavros Theodorakis, head of the centrist small Potami party, and Fofi Gennimata, leader of the PASOK socialist party, stressed the need for consensus after the elections.

Athens: The first tranche of Greece’s new bailout programme — the third in five years — was disbursed on Thursday on time allowing Athens to repay its maturing debts to its international creditors, the finance ministry announced.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was holding a meeting with his close aides and advisors to examine the prospect of calling snap general elections in later this year, government sources said.

Following the ratification of the new 86 billion euros ($96 billion), three-year bailout by the European Support Mechanism (ESM) on Wednesday evening, the first loan installment of 26 billion euros was paid out, Xinhua reported citing Greek news agency AMNA.

About 13 billion euros was allocated to a special account at the Bank of Greece to automatically repay a 3.4-billion euro debt to the European Central Bank (ECB) due on Thursday, a 2.2 billion euro debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the rest to pay off the 7 billion euro bridging loan ESM granted to the country in July.

Furthermore, 10 billion euros in the form of European Financial Stability Facility bonds will be used to recapitalise Greek banks, while one billion euros will be used for the payment of overdue obligations of the Greek government to the private sector.

The development clears the way for the Tsipras to decide his next moves in the domestic political scene, analysts in Athens noted.

According to the analysts, Tsipras was considering a new confidence vote in his government soon and, in case of failure to win back his party’s “rebels”, will call for snap elections in September or October.

With dissidents within the ruling Syriza party openly blasting the government of making a U-turn on the anti-austerity platform that brought the party to power last January, early polls seem almost inevitable.

Tsipras was thinking about calling the polls as early as September 13, officials said.

The second idea is to hold the elections later in October so that the government passes some bailout policies through the parliament first, on time for the first assessment by creditors that will pave the way for the discussion on the Greek debt relief.

In order to ensure that the measures will be ratified by the assembly with no problems from Syriza MPs , the premier could close the plenary so that the draft bills are put to vote in reduced summer parliamentary sessions where he can control the appointment of Syriza deputies.

One response to “Greek bailout tranche disbursed on time”

Note the 96 Billion $ of so called bail out money, that came from the bank, is being made available to repay- meaning- return the money to the bank. Nothing is left for investment in sectors that is likely to generate wealth that will help the nation to repay their debt. On top of this- Greece will have to privatize many of the services like healthcare, social security, etc. But the exchange between Greece and Euro is being publicized as “AID” or “HELP” which in fact is the aid and help to Bankers.

Athens: Greece and its international lenders on Tuesday reached an agreement on a third bailout deal, a media report said.

Photo Credit: www.onlinestores.com

The deal was concluded shortly after 8 a.m., following a marathon session of talks that began on Monday morning, state-run Kathimerini daily reported.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos confirmed that a deal is in place.

“We are very close,” he said, adding “There are a couple of very small details remaining on prior actions.”

According to sources, the agreement involves the government having to immediately implement 35 measures.

The measures demand changes in tonnage tax for shipping firms, reducing the prices of generic drugs, a review of the social welfare system, strengthening of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE), phasing out of early retirement, scrapping tax breaks for islands by the end of 2016, implementation of the product market reforms proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), de-regulating the energy market and proceeding with the privatization program which is already in place.

If the agreement is finalized, the Greek parliament would vote on it on Thursday.

This would be followed on Friday by the Euro-group and other euro-zone parliaments approving the deal.